The idiocy of Loki green as top-5 reward in Starfall

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NorthernPolarity wrote:

onimus wrote:

Xiltyn wrote:

kalyan0206 wrote:

Btw if green is the top ability then it should have competition ... isn't that obivious ..

Green is not necessarily the top ability, but it is the most desired as it's new and everyone that isn't buying covers wants it in order to max Loki. I understand making it have competition to get it, but making it the top prize is a guaranteed way to drive up scores.

Also, the suggestion to choose an "off-shard" completely defeats the purpose of the multiple end times, which allow us to play when is most convenient for us. Personally, I was in the situation of wanting all three top rewards. My doesn't have all the yellow I want; my isn't at 5 blue yet; and I only have 1 green cover for . So, I was faced with the choice of join a shard where the times are favorable and get a cover for IW, or join a shard that doesn't fit well in my schedule for Loki and possibly Fury with pretty much no chance of getting IW without spending a ton of HP. I chose convenience and IW, since I already have 1 green for Loki from Gauntlet, and 3 star covers are "easier" to get than 4 star (since first is never a guarantee while 1300 in my preferred end time is).

The shard concept has failed.
I think everyone recognizes that except D3.

But there's no real way to make it more convenient because D3 doesn't control which shard the high scorers pick.

If every shard were equal in competition and points available, I'd pick shard 2 or 3 because that would end in the middle of the day for me, thus not making me get up early or stay up late.

But the simple fact of the matter is Shards 4 and 5 are points shard. You can get 1300 relatively easily, but that will only get you top 25, if not top 100.

Shard 1 is placement shard. 1000 points will typically net you top 5, but 1100 is basically the most you can get.

Shards 2 and 3 are the lost shards. In the times I've tested them, once I get past 800, I can't get a match up worth more than 10 points. And I'm shot down very quickly because everyone is so low scoring in those shards.

I stay in 1 or 4, based on my priorities.

Shards failed at providing a balanced environment for players to play across all shards. However, the whole point of sharding in the first place was to allow non USA players to have tinykitty end times, and I'm guessing that it did pretty well there for the general populace that isn't as crazy as the forum folk.

HawkeyeSucks wrote:

let's not look past Loki for the final prog reward in the Prodigal Sun PVE. That is straight up bull tinykitty

Seems like everyone is completely forgetting about the free Loki green that we got off of Gauntlet. I don't know what you were expecting, but I wasn't expecting 5 green Loki covers to be handed to me on a silver platter. Seems par for the course.

Anyways, The way that the sharding metagame has evolved is pretty simple. If you want placement awards, go into the non-death bracket shard. If you want progression / season points, go into the death bracket shard. It sucks that this is how it has to be, but I'm guessing that allowing the European players to not be completely screwed over is worth it, since the growth of the game in those countries and allowing players to actually play the game is probably more important than us complaining about death brackets.

There was a free green loki cover In the last gauntlet? Do tell, because I wasn't gifted one.

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reckless442 wrote:

People are missing the main point of my post -- the contradictions between what the Devs say they want and what they do. If they legitimately want scores to come down, they should not structure events in a way that drives scores up.

Those contradictions are not limited to keeping scoring down. The Devs professed that they did not want PVES to be grinds and even used that as justification for True Healing change. Remember how that was supposed to force us to play less? But then they turned around and gave us 2.5-hr refreshes, which has made PVE even more of a grind.

I don't get this either. You talk about reward structure, but seems like all the replies are about time slices and other nonsense like they didn't bother to read your original post. It's like they saw high points driven by t5 competition and ignored every other word you said.

Spoit

stephen43084 wrote:

reckless442 wrote:

People are missing the main point of my post -- the contradictions between what the Devs say they want and what they do. If they legitimately want scores to come down, they should not structure events in a way that drives scores up.

Those contradictions are not limited to keeping scoring down. The Devs professed that they did not want PVES to be grinds and even used that as justification for True Healing change. Remember how that was supposed to force us to play less? But then they turned around and gave us 2.5-hr refreshes, which has made PVE even more of a grind.

I don't get this either. You talk about reward structure, but seems like all the replies are about time slices and other nonsense like they didn't bother to read your original post. It's like they saw high points driven by t5 competition and ignored every other word you said.

Still more on topic than the strawmans people made arguing with the last thread reck put up

Pylgrim

Yeah, I have been generally positive about what the Devs have been doing as of late but making that cover a top 5 reward was a **** move, no ifs or buts. It was basically throwing a tiny fish on a tank full of starving sharks just to amuse themselves watching them savage eachother to get it.

Spoit

And yeah, making it the 2nd cover would have been even more of a **** move. At least top 5 gets repeated for the progression reward

Pentagoon

On the whole flipside of the original post - I wouldn't have fought so dang hard as I did till 3am last night if it weren't for that cover. It took hours to earn my way up to that high of a score in shard 5, burning through about 800 HP along the way, dodging and absorbing snipes for 45-50 points, all the way to the end. DuckyV hit me hard for a 50 pointer at the 1 hour remaining mark, but I made a mad long 20 minute hop to get within the final 30 points with 10 minutes to go. I was getting retals left and right but said no guts.... no green.... so I went for it and unleashed a horrible surprise on Wolvie at the last minute to get my first green Loki. That kind of adrenaline-fueled run, combined with a 7th place finish for my Venoms made that one of the most memorable PVPs I've stayed up for in a while. For now, having a Green Loki is a status symbol of either completing the Gauntlet (not me) and luxury cover that the elite players (top 5 only, brothers) can parade around for the next few days during his PVP. More. Please.

Unknown

Spoit wrote:

stephen43084 wrote:

reckless442 wrote:

People are missing the main point of my post -- the contradictions between what the Devs say they want and what they do. If they legitimately want scores to come down, they should not structure events in a way that drives scores up.

Those contradictions are not limited to keeping scoring down. The Devs professed that they did not want PVES to be grinds and even used that as justification for True Healing change. Remember how that was supposed to force us to play less? But then they turned around and gave us 2.5-hr refreshes, which has made PVE even more of a grind.

I don't get this either. You talk about reward structure, but seems like all the replies are about time slices and other nonsense like they didn't bother to read your original post. It's like they saw high points driven by t5 competition and ignored every other word you said.

Still more on topic than the strawmans people made arguing with the last thread reck put up

Dont' forget the red herrings.

Unknown

Because buying 5 health packs lasts shorter than a shield. Wanna get better scores? Spam more health packs.

Ka-Ching!

$$$$$$$

True story.